Graves of the Fireflies - Movie Review Example

. . 24 July 2007 Graves of Fireflies The Isao Takahata's the Grave of the Fireflies, a Studio Ghibli production, is oneof the greatest animated picture ever made. The Grave of the Fireflies is described to be one of very powerful, moving, touching movie, an allegory of human failings and a quiet but unflinching look at two children caught in the peripheral effects of a war. The movie is considered to be the most painful and affecting movie ever likely to produce. Although an animated, having simple actions and scenes yet full of the great beauty and innocence that would not be possible otherwise, creating all the more contrast with the harsh and painful realities experienced by the characters.

The story is based on a bestselling novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, a survivor of the firebombing of Kobe in World War II. Nosaka battled starvation and lost his younger sister to malnutrition. Haunted for years by the experience, driven by the guilt of his sister's death, he wrote the book in hopes of silencing the ghosts surrounding him. The story of picture revolves round a boy and his sister, named Seita and Setsuko, ages 14 and 4, orphaned when their mother is killed in the firebombing of Tokyo.

Both children were left to survive on their own in what remains of civilian life in Japan. Before American troops begin to occupy Japan, the children flee their disheveled home and deceased parents to make their bid for a new life. They travel to the home of a distant aunt, who turns out to be distant in more ways than one. Increasingly frustrated, the aunt coldly discards the children. They took shelter in an abandoned bomb shelter in the countryside. As the situation grows progressively worse in the war, things deteriorate proportionally on the home front.

Both children Seita and Setsuko do their best to survive in the Japanese countryside, battling hunger, prejudice, and pride in their own personal battle. The surrounding adults, the farmers and the doctors and the officers, are either unable or unwilling to notice the orphaned two. The world itself seems to be collapsing around them. At first glance the movie could be seen as a metaphor for the entire country of Japan during the war: fighting a losing battle, yet too stubbornly proud to admit defeat or accept help.

The movie is also in some ways uplifting in its portrayals of simple beauty in the darkest of situations and the strength of the human spirit, but although it never resorts to heavy-handed tragedy or melodrama, this tale of two children standing up in the face of adversity and slowly falling victim to a host of human frailties- suspicion, prejudice, and pride--is unsparing and deeply tragic from start to finish. Above all, though, the enemy in this story is war--you never see a battle or an army, but you can see the tragic effects of war on even the idyllic countryside far removed from the front.

Grave of the Fireflies puts a human face on the civilian population of Japan during the war--something not many movies have done, and none have done as well. Moreover, it manages to do so in a painful and realistic, yet still understated, manner. In fact it is almost too painful to watch, but equally difficult to take your eyes off. All this, and it is animated--anyone who thinks animation can't tell a realistic story with any impact has never seen this movie, and should be required to do so (Marshall, para. 1-7). Works Cited Marshall, Makosuke.

Grave of the Fireflies: Review. 19 August, 2003. 24 July, 2007. http://animeworld.com/reviews/graveofthefireflies.html